


Sidequest: Soup

by Bentclaw



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Angst, Gen, it's about awkward werewolf dad bonding, the ship is all implied and in the past, this is a post War Crimes fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-06-29
Packaged: 2018-07-18 23:00:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7334116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bentclaw/pseuds/Bentclaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Garrosh Hellscream escapes from his trial, the Alliance is sent scrambling to chase after him. In the middle of all this hubbub, Genn Graymane takes it upon himself to comfort Prince Anduin, who has been badly shaken up by what happened.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sidequest: Soup

**Author's Note:**

> Here, have this pointless unedited thing I coughed up to get some headcanons out of my system. Sorry about the silly title, this is not meant to be a silly fic I just couldn't think of any other title that didn't sound dramatic. I don't know why I wanted to write sads, I don't like sads. I really love the idea of Genn becoming Anduin's weird secondary father figure so that's mostly what this is about. 
> 
> WEREWOLF DAD BEST DAD.

Varian Wrynn took a deep, steadying breath, counted to ten, and reminded himself (for the seventh time in an hour) that breaking down his son’s bedroom door would ultimately not be a good idea, even if it would accomplish the immediate goal of getting Anduin to come out of there.

“Anduin,” he said, practically shaking with the effort of keeping his voice quiet and steady, “You’ve been in there for three days. Don’t you think it’s time to come out?”

He hadn’t expected a response, but that didn’t make the answering silence any less alarming. Varian frowned and tried the door handle. It was locked, just as it had been locked since their arrival. Anduin had seemed fine on the journey home from Pandaria. A little quiet maybe, but that was to be expected. Garrosh Hellscream’s trial and the aftermath of it had been exhausting for everyone. Varian had expected Anduin to be back to his normal self as soon as he was home and had gotten some food in him.

However, as soon as they’d set foot inside Stormwind Keep, Anduin had excused himself to his chambers exceedingly politely, saying that he was tired and going to take a nap. He hadn’t come back out. Since then, the only thing indicating that Anduin was even still in there was that the guards patrolling the castle walls could see the lights being turned on in the evening, and off again as Anduin presumably went to sleep later in the night.

Varian decided to try a different angle. “Prophet Velen should be bringing some of his people to the keep soon, to discuss our options for entering the other Draenor. Don’t you want to help us get ready to meet them?”

Silence.

Varian grit his teeth. “Anduin Wrynn. Open the door.” He shook the handle harder, then knocked loudly. “I know you can hear me!”

The guard down the hall was eyeing him nervously, which meant it was time to rein himself in again. Anduin didn’t respond well to rough words, he needed to be gentle and persuasive. He cleared his throat and took another calming breath.

“We’re having beef stew tonight,” he said, cringing at how plaintive he sounded. “I know it’s one of your favorite foods, won’t you at least come out for dinner? You have to be hungry by now.”

No response.

Varian heaved a frustrated sigh and turned away. He would try again later. Anduin couldn’t stay in his room forever.

* * *

Anduin listened to his father walking away down the hall and rolled over onto his back. He couldn’t stay in his room forever, as nice as the idea sounded. At the very least, he would soon need to open the door to ask one of his guards to bring him something to eat. He recognized that food was a basic need and he would start to experience ill effects if he didn’t get any soon. The idea of food was so unappealing though. His stomach hurt, and it was all he could do to force himself to swallow water from his bathroom sink.

He had almost asked one of his guards to bring him some tea once, but just thinking about it made him remember drinking tea and playing games at the tavern with Wrathion, and then his stomach turned again and he’d had to go lie down and press his face into his pillows so he wouldn’t cry.

He refused to cry about it anymore, he’d done enough of that. Wrathion had made his choice, and Anduin was an idiot for letting his guard down.

His leg ached. Probably because he hadn’t been moving enough to exercise it. He pushed himself up against the headboard and leaned down to rub at it. At the Veiled Stair, just walking around the tavern was good exercise for it. The wooden floor was uneven, so it forced his leg’s muscles to work in novel ways.

_Walking circles around the tavern to stretch his leg, Wrathion catching him when he tripped and telling him to be more careful-_

He stopped himself, grimacing and squeezing his eyes shut. Why did he have to do that to himself? Everything he saw reminded him of what had happened, but he couldn’t keep thinking about it. The sooner he pulled himself together the sooner everything could go back to normal.

There was another knock at his door. He sighed and stared vaguely up at the ceiling. His father was back, then. Sooner than he’d expected.

_Those cracks in the ceiling are shaped like a dragon-_

“Anduin? It’s Genn.”

Anduin pulled his eyes off the ceiling with a jolt. _Don’t think about it_. He grit his teeth and turned his head slightly to look at the door. That was new. Genn had been living in the keep ever since the Worgen had officially been accepted into the Alliance, but he had barely spoken to Anduin in that time.

He didn’t answer, but waited to hear what Genn would say.

“Your father is worried about you, Anduin,” Genn started after a short pause. “He keeps saying that he can’t even tell whether you’re alive in there or not.”

Anduin couldn’t contain a quiet scoff. If Varian were truly concerned about his safety, he really would have broken the door down by now.

“I know, it’s mostly hyperbolic.” Anduin started, he had forgotten that Worgen had enhanced hearing. “All the same, I understand where he’s coming from. He wants to protect you, but he doesn’t know what’s wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Anduin lied. There was no point in trying to pretend he was asleep when Genn could hear his every move. His voice was slightly hoarse from days of disuse, and he cleared his throat.

It was an obvious lie, but Genn didn’t call him out on it. “I know you don’t want to come out, but may I come in?” he asked. “I brought food. If you start to wither away in there then Varian really will have a problem.”

“I’m not hungry,” Anduin said, and immediately covered his face with one hand. He sounded like a child.

“Of course you are, don’t be ridiculous.” Genn sounded almost amused. “Are you going to let me in, or should I leave the tray here? It’s getting heavy.”

Anduin was on the verge of telling him to go away, but he made himself sit up. No matter how he felt, Genn was technically a visiting diplomat. Anduin couldn’t act like he did around his father. He couldn’t be rude. So he slowly stood up, ignoring how sore his leg was. He made his way over to the door and unbolted the lock. “All right, you can come in. For a minute.”

Genn pushed the door open the rest of the way with his shoulder, and came inside with one of the kitchen trays. Being the first food Anduin had seen in several days, the bowl of soup smelled so strongly to him that he felt dizzy. He went back to his bed and sat heavily on it.

Genn considered the room for a moment, then set the tray down on Anduin’s dresser and pulled over a desk chair for himself. “Right. Thank you for showing signs of life. Now, go on and eat.” He sat and watched Anduin expectantly.

Anduin hesitated. “You… can leave. I’m sure you have things to do.” He didn’t like it when people watched him eat at the best of times, and he especially didn’t like it when he couldn’t guarantee that the first bite wouldn’t send him into a fit of gagging.

“Nope,” Genn answered with a grin that showed off more than a few of his fangs. “My only job right now is to make sure you don’t pour that down the drain as soon as I’m out of sight. Eat it. I can tell you don’t want to, but you’ll feel better if you do.”

If Genn wasn’t going to leave until he ate, then it was better to just get it over with. He would have had to go get food himself soon anyway. Anduin picked the spoon up and shoved a bite of soup into his mouth.

It was good, but after three days all the flavors were slightly overwhelming. He wrinkled his nose as he chewed. At least it wasn’t Pandaren food, that was always so heavily spiced.

_Dinner at the tavern, Tong complaining in the kitchen, Wrathion smiling at him from across the table, a smile he might not ever see again-_

Anduin choked. The soup burned its way down his throat and he grabbed for the glass of water he’d been keeping by his bed, tears coming to his eyes. He told himself it was just from coughing.

Genn got up to thump him on the back. “Easy there, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Go on, have some more.”

In the end, forcing down the soup did get easier, and it saved him from having to answer Genn. By the time he put the bowl down, he no longer felt like he might cough it all back up again.

Genn, who had been idly fiddling with a button on his sleeve, turned to look at him again. “Feel better?”

“A bit, yes.” Anduin forced a smile. “Thank you, Genn.”

Genn nodded. “Food always helps. I don’t know that there’s much I can do about the rest of it, though.”

Anduin looked down. “There’s nothing else, I was just…”

“Just tired, yeah.” Genn interrupted him, holding him a hand. “I’ll believe that when I believe that the Forsaken just invaded Gilneas to borrow a cup of sugar.” He leaned back in his chair. “Do you want to talk about it? Your dad and I want to help you, but we can’t if we don’t know what’s wrong.”

“Dad wouldn’t get it,” Anduin said, surprising himself with the force of the words. “He just looks at what happens and sees fugitives to be chased down, but…” he cut himself off, swallowing hard. The sick feeling was back, and he didn’t want to waste the food Genn had brought.

Genn scratched at his beard. “Your dad might surprise you, but for now, do you think I would get it? Varian thinks you might be scared, because the man who almost killed you escaped. I get the impression that’s not it.”

“I can’t help but think I could have prevented it.” It was the truth, or at least part of it. “Maybe I couldn’t have done anything to change what Garrosh did, but I definitely should have seen that Wrathion was going to…” he stopped and took a breath. “…was going to betray us.”

Genn nodded. “Varian has been complaining that the dragon should never have been allowed in.”

“I invited him,” Anduin said. His voice was barely above a whisper. “I thought… I don’t know what I was thinking.”

That was the problem with this whole thing, wasn’t it? He hadn’t been thinking. He’d known when he met Wrathion that a black dragon was not to be trusted, but somewhere between the games and the teasing and the overlapping of their personal spaces he’d forgotten that.

He balanced his elbows uncomfortably on his knees so he could rest his head in his hands. “I feel stupid. I know that inviting him to the trial was a bad idea, but he’d been acting so strangely and I thought it might help him feel more at ease. Father and Jaina are going to say he was manipulating me and they knew it was a bad idea for me to spend time with him, but that’s not fair. They barely know anything about him.”

“I’m told you were staying with him at the Veiled Stair for a few months, I suppose that would give you a better perspective on him than the rest of us,” Genn replied. “Varian thinks he went with Garrosh to start an army. What do you think he was doing?”

“I don’t know,” Anduin sighed. “But he seemed unhappy. Like he really didn’t want to leave.” He bit his tongue. He’d almost said leave me. Maybe that was just wishful thinking, but he kept remembering the look on Wrathion’s face, the last thing he remembered before he’d lost consciousness.

“It could have been an act,” Genn pointed out. Anduin tried not to hold it against him. Genn didn’t know Wrathion either. He would only know stories of other black dragons.

“Wrathion’s a terrible liar,” he said. “I could always tell when he was trying to bluff me. If he wants to hide something, he just won’t talk about it.”

“I see,” Genn smiled at him. “Sounds familiar.”

Anduin stared blankly. Oh. Genn was making fun of him.

Before his brain could catch up and decide how he was going to respond to that, Genn stood up and stretched.

“I think you’ve had about enough of an old wolf prying into your life today,” he said. “Just remember that we’re all on your side here. It’s not good to let things sit and rot in your head, so you make sure to let me or your dad know whenever it all gets too much for you to handle, all right?”

Anduin nodded slowly. “All right, I will.”

“Hmm. I’ll hold you to that.” Genn gave him a rough pat on the shoulder, collected the empty dish, and left.

Worgen were always so abrupt, Anduin thought. He’d barely had the time to process any of that. Had he said anything ridiculous? At the very least, he hoped Genn wasn’t just humoring him.

He lay back down. Just talking about his problems wouldn’t make them go away, but it had helped push them back a little bit. He could think of other things, now.

Had his father said Velen would be visiting soon? Maybe in the morning he would go help plan for that. It would be nice to show his old teacher around the city.

In the morning things would be better.


End file.
